Background: Due to the known contribution of excess sodium intake on elevations in blood pressure, salt reduction regulations are being introduced in countries all over the world. To study the contribution of sodium intake on cardiovascular disease development, we determined whether left ventricular mass associates with sodium excretion in young adults free from overt cardiovascular disease and those with masked hypertension.
Methods: We included 681 participants (41% men and 50% black) in a cross-sectional analysis from the African-PREDICT study with complete 24-hour urine collections and successful ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (>70% valid readings). The participants were categorized as normotensive (n = 534) or masked hypertensive (n = 147). In addition, we determined left ventricular mass index (LVMI) along with traditional risk factors.
Results: Masked hypertensive individuals had higher sodium excretion (149 vs. 128 mmol/L/day) and LVMI (78.1 vs. 69.6 g/m2) than normotensives. In single, partial and multiple regression analyses, LVMI independently associated with higher sodium excretion in the total group of young adults (β = 0.089; p = 0.011). This result was also evident among masked hypertensives (β = 0.215; p = 0.008), but not in normotensives (β = 0.054; p = 0.134).
Conclusion: Our results indicated that higher sodium excretion (reflecting a higher salt intake) may contribute to increased left ventricular mass, potentially driven by the early development of masked or undetected hypertension.
Keywords: Blood pressure; Cardiovascular disease; Left ventricular mass; Masked hypertension; Salt; Sodium excretion.
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